Save the Glassworks Settlement

 More than 100 people live here in 11 houses. Small and large families, single parents, people with disabilities, young, old, many people with different stories, colourful, together.

Our settlement is a place for us:
- where you are not alone!
- with small and cramped flats, but large communal areas.
- with affordable living space.
- where children can simply play outside.
- of diversity, respect and dignity.
- of neighbourly help and friendships.
- of peace and liveliness.
- lived collectivity - building day, plenums, festivals and much more.
- with lots of green in the form of trees, lawns, gardens.
- for hedgehogs, bats, birds, guinea pigs, chickens, dogs and cats.
- with big puddles in autumn and lots of mud in winter.

A place we love, where we like to live and which we want to preserve.

We are happy if you help us.

But our settlement is much more than our home. It is the only completely preserved factory housing estate of the former Oldenburg glassworks and thus a special and rare monument to the history of the workers and is protected as an ensemble.

Our housing estate is very old - built in 1890 and renovated in the 1960s at low cost, only the most necessary investments were made for a long time. Now our roofs are threatened with decay!

Until the 1980s, only workers from the nearby glassworks lived here. When the glassworks closed, our estate was sold, first to an investor, then to a housing association that now wants to sell it. And so, since 2015, we have been buying through the hands of many individual owners and two associations, together we form a community of owners. Most of the owners have lived here for ages. And they want to stay here forever. However, many of us have little capital, which now puts us in a big dilemma.
Our houses need to be renovated. Especially the roofs. A survey by the Monument Service in 2019 revealed: cracked roof tiles, beetle-eaten wooden structures, dilapidated electrics, all of which are increasingly becoming a danger - so let's get on with it!

We managed the first roof in 2022, but there are ten more roofs and various corners that urgently need to be renovated. Rising energy and living costs are making our situation increasingly difficult.

Whereas the first roof cost €140,000, which we had to raise together, the next roof will cost €260,000. Money that some of us could already hardly afford.
So how are we going to manage the whole thing for the next few years? That is why we are here now...

We are asking for your help to preserve this special place in Oldenburg. To preserve the settlement with the people in its diverse composition. To preserve a green space in the city. To preserve a place steeped in history. To protect the environment by preserving existing houses and not demolishing them.